


Love

by violet_daydreams



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Free Verse, M/M, Mentions of Suicide, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-03-27 13:43:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13882068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violet_daydreams/pseuds/violet_daydreams
Summary: Love isn't realIt crashes and burnsLeaves nothing but wreckage in its path---Slices of Goro Akechi's life through free verse poetry





	Love

Love isn't real   
It crashes and burns   
Leaves nothing but wreckage in its path   
Not once has it been stable, secure    
It's dangerous  
Terrifying

Love isn't real  
She's long gone  
Love and desire have snuffed out her flame   
She can't take the world like this  
Can't bear the thought of waking up to see him reflected in her child's eyes anymore  
So she doesn't   
He finds her   
The image burned in his eyes for an eternity   
Her choice on his shoulders his entire life  
His mark as unwanted  
She blames him  
And it's a burden he never stops carrying  
  
Love isn't real  
None of his remaining family wants him  
His grandmother takes him for a while  
Then aunts   
Uncles  
He never sticks   
Eventually, he's completely tossed aside

Love isn't real    
His last foster mother preaches it like the world is ending and she is the only savior    
There is no tender love, no kindness   
Only discipline    
"You'll find a wife someday if you listen to what I say," she tells him, "Make yourself useful, somebody will want you"   


Love isn’t real  
He’s scared and alone  
A boy clinging to false images of hope  
That his looks and his image can save him  
Liberate him from his loneliness   
It doesn’t  
It can't

Love isn’t real   
His phone leads him to another world   
He almost dies, cold and alone  
There are things here that shouldn’t be real  
Things more powerful than him   
The spirit of rebellion saves him  
There’s power in his dark and empty heart   


Love isn’t real  
Loki, his savior, is power he doesn’t deserve   
The power to make someone psychotic   
The ability to kill  
He can use this power  
Become useful by relying on himself for a change  
It's a power born from his own heart  
Of chaos and destruction and anger  
To cause unimaginable harm  
To get back at those who hurt him  
Wronged him  
He's fourteen

Love isn't real  
He sees that when he finds his father  
Makes his business proposal   
Traps himself  
After the first murder he can never be free  
In his father he sees the truth that woman proclaimed  
He makes himself useful  
Detective work, solving his own cases  
He's always been a prodigy, devilishly charismatic   
Time to put his skill to use  
To do something to be wanted, accepted   
With Loki's power he is someone worth wanting  
As a murderer and assassin he is wanted  
Finally

Love isn't real   
But he feels alive from the moment he first hears him speak    
This bold audience member    
It's not a spark, surely, but it's something    
It's real   
Tangible    
So, it can't be what he thinks it might be    


Love isn’t real   
But speaking to him is electric    
Warm    
Safe   
He almost feels like he belongs in LeBlanc   
Almost   


Love isn't real  
That's why he can think of betraying them without batting an eyelash  
Why he can contact the police  
Why he can make these hits  
Why he can use Sae  
He doesn't need these people  
He needs revenge  
Shido's blood on his hands

Love isn't real   
But still he can't really do all of that  
Not so easily  
Not without hurting  
His precious Joker has to die   
He's known this from the start and yet it hurts him even so   
Why is he doing this?   
Is there a point?   
He's not sure    
But he can’t defy Shido   
He’d die if he even thought about it 

  
Love isn't real  
That's why he can stand there without shame, ready to kill the boy of his dreams  
To kill all of his friends  
Because there's no attachment   
Emotions are a game on the best of days  
He can turn them off when he needs to  
He can look them in the eyes and lie

Love isn't real  
That's why he uses Loki on himself  
Because emotions are no more than a game  
He's been playing the level headed fool  
He can do that no longer  
He needs to succeed  
To prove he can do this  
To who?  
He isn't sure  
But he needs it

Love isn't real  
That's what he tells himself when he's down on the ground  
Broken  
Defeated  
Empty  
Surrounded by fools too kind for their own good  
They should kill him  
They won't  
They refuse   
And it's hard not to laugh

Love isn't real   
He sees himself, sees what his father thinks of him   
But he's no more than a bastard to be used as a pawn   
A refurbished mistake   
The others think it's cruel    
They don't know the half of it    


Love isn't real    
He shoots the other version of himself    
Aims for the panel that will close off the partition    
He's dying, but he can do this   
He can do this for his Joker   


Love is real   
He sees this when he misfires    
When the Phantom Thieves come to protect him from himself    
When Joker takes a bullet for him   
When he cries for the first time since he was four   
Because, somehow, it's okay to feel in this moment    


Love is real   
It’s in the restless hours he spends at the hospital    
He shouldn’t be here, but he’s told the staff it’s for a case   
He doesn’t dare leave Akira’s side for a moment   
He wants to be the first face he sees when he wakes up   
He doesn’t know how to stop being a selfish bastard   


Love is real   
The way he sobs while he waits for him to wake up   
The broken apologies Akira can’t even hear   
The way he clutches his hand   
The way he vows to make Shido pay   


Love is real   
It’s in the genuine smile Akira gives him    
In the relief he shows that the boy that tried to kill him is still alive    
It’s the way he pulls Akira into a hug   
The way Goro fusses when he wants to get back in the action   
Or in the way he slips Sojiro money to pay for the hospital visit   
The way he can be nice when he needs to

Love is real   
It’s much better   
It’s in the way they let him cry when it’s over and they’re safe  
How they all cry with him   
That they let him take the treasure himself   
That he gets to be Shido’s downfall   


Love is real   
It’s how they don’t push him away   
How they won’t let him run   
How Akira gradually introduces him into his life    
How he’s wanted for the first time    
Love is real   
It’s how Akira always remembers his favorite coffee    
Or how he laughs   
That charming smile   
The silent reassurances    


Love is real   
It’s their awkward first kiss   
He’s all blush and Akira is sweet laughter    
And they sit together in that attic for an eternity    
Together    
Warm   
And for the first time Goro can truly acknowledge it

Love is real


End file.
